Dead Sea by Brian Keene

The streets of the city are no longer safe. They are
filled with zombies - the living dead, rotting predators driven only by a
need to kill..and eat. Some of the living have struggled to survive,
but with each passing day their odds grow worse. Others have fled,
frantically searching for a place to escape, even briefly, the slaughter
around them.

For Lamar Reed and a handful of others,
that safe haven is an old Coast Guard ship out at sea, with plenty of
water separating them from the grasping hands and tearing teeth of the
dead. These desperate survivors are completely isolated, cut off from
the dangers of the mainland. But their haven will soon become a
deathtrap, and they'll learn that isolation can also mean no escape!

As a huge horror fan of both films
and novels, you may be surprised to find I'm not a big zombie addict.
While most of my fellow horror hounds go that route, there has never
been much to appeal to me about when it comes to rotting corpses
stumbling around looking for brains. That being said, Keene has made
quite a name for himself in the literary world as one of the best
writers of the zombie sub-genre out there. Deciding to ignore the ending
of his last and take it to a new direction, Dead Sea is a captivating
experience not suitable for the faint of heart.

From
page one it's clear this is a different type of story, as action
orientated as a book can get. In every chapter there is a crisis that
explodes, nothing being held back: tension, fear, violence, and blood.
If you're a horror fan this sort of thing will likely be up your alley,
as it's far from cheesy and is clearly an intelligent work. There were
about a dozen times I thought to myself, how the hell could Keene
possibly write the character out of that? It's hopeless! Amazingly
things turned around every time, not with stupid cop-outs either, but
with pure brilliance.

I
don't mean to gush on and on, but when a book keeps making me gasp and
tell my boyfriend in detail on how wonderful it is, when it keeps me up
half the night and makes me late for work the next day, it's a keeper. I
especially loved once they reached the boat and the inevitable slowly
happened. I genuinely felt for most of the later munched-on characters,
as their personalities had ample time to evolve.

The
main hero, Lamar, is not your typical lead - he's a black, gay man in
the ghetto trying to do right by the world. Much of the story involves
him taking care of two kids he finds along the way of the zombie
massacre, feeling like a failure in his own heart, yet unable to back
away from responsibility once it's found. The little boy Malik,
especially, was adorably sweet with his tough-guy spirit. Each character
works ideally, which made it all the more tragic if something happened
to them.

For
the zombies themselves; whoa! Interestingly Keene decided to have the
virus "jump species." First humans, and then slowly others like dogs,
cats, etc. Genuinely eerie to have a zombie dog after your tail! I won't
go into detail about which species were affected and which weren't (as
what happens with them later - or doesn't - is something you'll be
wondering for chapters if you ever read this book), but it's fascinating
how he adds to and changes the legend around.

Novels
that deal with the end of the world have one thing that's easy for
them, and that is that it's clear for the reader what the huge obstacle
is. Survival is for the fittest, or - in some cases - the lucky. It was
nice to note that Keene made the reader question whether survivors were
really lucky at all when they had to sit and reflect on what they were
surrounded by, who they lost, and what they could potentially become.
Just reading one paragraph from this review should tell you I highly
recommend this fierce story, but be sure to start reading it early so
you can get some sleep!

Book Quotes:

“... When you died, you were supposed to live on in the memories of
others. That's what I'd always been told. Didn't matter what you
believed, which religion you subscribed to, what god you worshipped. The
simple fact was that none of us knew what lay beyond. Immortality and
eternal life? The only sure shot at that was the memories of those you
left behind - your friends and family...”

FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Disclaimer:

Books reviewed or mentioned on this website have either been given to me free in exchange for an honest for review or purchased. My opinions of these books are my own and no monetary or other compensation has been requested, expected or received. Ratings/opinions of books are not influenced by how I acquired them.